No butts, says mayor. Put your fag in the bin
There is increasing talk of a ban on smoking in public places. Whilst I see the advantages on health grounds, I would strongly oopose it.
Basically, I'll stop smoking in public places when all those people who opt to drive their cars, especially the ones driving cars larger than 1.4 litres, are forced to demonstrate why every journey has to be done by car and can't be done by public transport, walking or cycling.
Oh. God. No. Can. Not. Encroach. on the God given. Rights. of an Englishman. to. Destroy the Planet. (Or take her snivelling spoilt brats the half mile to school).
Let's ban smoking in pubs and restaurants, shall we? But before we do so, let's look at pubs like Wetherspoons that have separate areas, and see how empty the non-smoking areas are. See how willing people are to comply with sensible, moderate self-regulation.
Otherwise, how are we going to enforce it?
Ooh, let's have legions of council officials going round fining all the pubs, restaurants and back-street cafes that allow their patrons to smoke. Because councils find it so easy to employ Environmental Health Officers. How often does any catering outlet have a visit from Environmental Health anyway? You've seen Life of Grime. Which of those duties should Environmental Health neglect to enforce smoking bans in pubs?
Now Ken is talking about litter wardens. Actually I don't oppose litter wardens. We have Streetcare Agents round here - at least until the Lib Dems abolish them in yet another pointless cut. They are kept very busy with matters relating to fly-tipping, commercial premises without bins, and the detritus of fast food that attracts rats. Sure they can start clamping down on smokers.
One thing is for certain, they won't be working twenty four hours. We have Street Wardens. It's good that we have Sreet Wardens. They finish at 7pm. So anybody who feels intimidated going out at night is not going to be helped by the reassuring presence of Street Wardens. When people get assaulted at 8pm on a Friday night, as happened to me, the Street Wardens were very sympathetic - but it's after their shift has finished.
I shall be damned annoyed if a litter warden fines me fifty pounds for smoking at eleven o'clock at night, when I've tailored my journey to ensure the shortest walking route to reduce my anxiety of walking the streets. Anxiety at being mugged or worse. Not that that is actually a major risk - but it's that old Fear-of-Crime syndrome that affects people lives more than crime.
It won't be police enforcing this no-smoking. Civilians will want to avoid confrontration. So they will, naturally, find it easier to target the nice thirty-something woman coming home from a concert than the yobs who are causing greater problems than just dropping a cigarette end on the floor.
The laws on cannabis were relaxed partly as a recognition of the needless criminalisation of otherwise law-abiding people.
Of course it is important for Public Health to tackle smoking. Just as it's important to combat pollution, encourage healthy diets. And, increasingly, it only seems practical to introduce new measures when they can be self-financing, as I suppose, these fines will be.
I have noticed even in the past six months how many restaurants have started to separate smokers and non-smokers. More should do so. Restaurant owners are not stupid. They know the smokers are the ones who linger over the liqueurs and liqueur coffees. It's good business.
So, this is a policy targeted at me, and I have every intention of fighting it as militantly as the motorists fight against their regulation.
